The Hindu Business Line : Hyundai stops production of luxury sedan Elantra

Chennai, Oct. 5 Hyundai Motor India has stopped production of its entry-level luxury sedan Elantra. The company is studying the feasibility of launching another model in its place.

“Hyundai Motor Company has already stopped production of the model,” said Mr H.S. Lheem, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India. The company was selling Elantra in single digits in the last few months.

Mr Arvind Saxena, Vice-President, Marketing and Sales, said the segment in which the Elantra was placed was itself quite small, about 2,000 cars a month. (Its competitor models included the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.) The Elantra, launched about four years ago, had a local component content of about 50 per cent.

Re-working strategy

Mr Lheem said the company would also re-work its strategy for the Sonata, the premium luxury sedan, this month. It sold about 60 units of the car a month, when ideally it would like to do about 100 units a month. There would be more focussed advertising for the model, he said.

On the company’s second plant, he said construction had been completed and finishing touches were being given to the new hatchback, codenamed “Pa”, which would be launched in November.

The Pa, he said, would come with more than 90 per cent local content and would be a twin model of the popular hatchback Santro. It would be slotted between Santro and Getz Prime.

Pricing

Both Mr Lheem and Mr Saxena declined to reveal the pricing strategy, stating the price would be decided a day before the launch. (To get an idea, the top-end Santro has an ex-showroom price of Rs 3.74 lakh and the top-end Getz Prime Rs 5.09 lakh.)

The name for the new car has not yet been decided and the company is in discussions with its parent, Mr Lheem said.

He said in 2007, the company planned to produce and sell 3.3 lakh cars, against three lakh in 2006. In 2008, he was confident that the company would produce five lakh cars and reach the full capacity of six lakh cars in 2009.